03 August 2006

Once upon a time some of my friends and I wanted to learn how to breakdance. We were 7-8 years old and super dorky little white suburban kids. We all had parachute pants and dreams of one day owning a Michael Jackson jacket and tons of arcade games in our house like Ricky in Silver Spoons. I remember my friend's older brother one day bringing home a 7" of "Hanging Out" by UTFO and playing the b-side for us. He was like four years older than any of us and thus eminently cool. In fact, he taught me many things about the world when I was just a little kid like how to swear, what a condom is ("it's this balloon you put on to get a girl pregnant" he told me), and (most importantly) what hip-hop was all about. That one record had a huge impact on all of us kids in the neighborhood. The specific song was "Roxanne, Roxanne". Within me it ignited an unquenchable appetite for urban music. Of course I was just a kid, so I had to take the hip-hop as it came my way.

Back to the breakdancing. I can't remember for certain if it was Breakin' that inspired the breakdance fever in our crew but once my mother caught wind of it she did precisely what any normal mom would. She said she'd teach me and all of my friends how to breakdance. What?! Yeah, see she actually owned and ran her own dance studio in the '80s. I was a dance studio kid. Often I'd go there after school and hang out in the office until mom could bring me home. Obviously, being around so much music as a boy had quite an impact on me but I digress. So yes, my mom had all of us kids into the studio one Saturday afternoon and taught us some very basic breakdance moves. The key song that she played over and over again, some version of the hip-hop/electro classic "Jam On It" by Newcleus.

For years after that I would bust into the song (in my head, or sometimes outloud) whenever I heard someone say the word "jam". Jam? "Jam j-j-j-j-jam on it". Not until about 1998 or so did I finally pick up a copy of the song on CD. It's still a very worthy party song/dance song that nearly got played by me on Tuesday night at Beg Yr Pardon. What are you waiting for? Jam on it!

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